The Recruitment Innovation Center: Developing novel, person-centered strategies for clinical trial recruitment and retention.

Consuelo H Wilkins,Nan Kennedy,Tiffany Israel,Sarah Nelson,Sheila V Kusnoor,Bethany Drury,Rebecca N Jerome,Rhonda G Kost,Paul A Harris,Terri L Edwards,Casey Rodweller,Mary Stroud,Loretta M Byrne,Colleen E Lawrence,Julia Dunagan,Jill M Pulley,Leslie R Boone,Gordon R Bernard

doi:10.1017/cts.2021.841

Abstract

Clinical trials continue to face significant challenges in participant recruitment and retention. The Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC), part of the Trial Innovation Network (TIN), has been funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to develop innovative strategies and technologies to enhance participant engagement in all stages of multicenter clinical trials. In collaboration with investigator teams and liaisons at Clinical and Translational Science Award institutions, the RIC is charged with the mission to design, field-test, and refine novel resources in the context of individual clinical trials. These innovations are disseminated via newsletters, publications, a virtual toolbox on the TIN website, and RIC-hosted collaboration webinars. The RIC has designed, implemented, and promised customized recruitment support for 173 studies across many diverse disease areas. This support has incorporated site feasibility assessments, community input sessions, recruitment materials recommendations, social media campaigns, and an array of study-specific suggestions. The RIC's goal is to evaluate the efficacy of these resources and provide access to all investigating teams, so that more trials can be completed on time, within budget, with diverse participation, and with enough accrual to power statistical analyses and make substantive contributions to the advancement of healthcare.

Highlights

Difficulty in recruiting and retaining participants, long understood as a key research challenge, continues to plague the clinical trial landscape
For each study approved for support, the Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC) provides a consultation with our recruitment experts
The RIC has developed multiple resources and templates that it continues to refine, while developing new ones to meet the needs of clinical trial investigators nationwide

Summary

Introduction

Difficulty in recruiting and retaining participants, long understood as a key research challenge, continues to plague the clinical trial landscape. In recent years, increased attention to the adverse impact of recruitment shortfalls has led to identification of numerous contributing issues.[3,4,5,6,7] NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) launched the Trial Innovation Network (TIN) in 2016 to create efficiencies, streamline processes, and discover and share solutions to common problems facing multicenter trial investigators. The TIN collaborative initiative includes three Trial Innovation Centers (TICs), one Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC), and the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program Hubs.[8,9] Specific aims of the RIC are to: 1. Provide a national home and collaborative ‘storefront’ for the creation, storing, and sharing of recruitment education, programs, and best practices The TIN collaborative initiative includes three Trial Innovation Centers (TICs), one Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC), and the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program Hubs.[8,9] Specific aims of the RIC are to: 1. Provide a national home and collaborative ‘storefront’ for the creation, storing, and sharing of recruitment education, programs, and best practices

Methods

Results

Conclusion